Ginobili helps keep Thunder at bay in fourth

Point guard Tony Parker had led the Spurs to a 22-point lead in the third quarter of Tuesday’s 120-111 victory over the Thunder in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals at the AT&T Center. But when crunch time threatened to flatten the lead, Parker found familiar help.

As he had when he scored 11 points in a decisive fourth quarter in Game 1, Manu Ginobili came off the bench to score 10 of his 20 points when the Spurs needed them most.

Entering the game with 8:10 remaining and the Thunder having sliced 14 points from the 22-point margin, Ginobili’s first basket of the fourth was a piece of creative genius born of necessity.

Finding his path from the 3-point line to the basket blocked by Oklahoma City’s 6-foot-10 Kevin Durant, Ginobili darted to his left, faded back to the point it appeared he was falling down and flipped up a one-handed shot an instant before touching down for what would have been a traveling violation.

It was a momentum-turning moment that re-established a double-digit lead and gave the Spurs just enough confidence to get to the finish with their 20th consecutive victory.

“I just tried to attack the rim, and I found Durant with his 6-10 length and long arms, so I just tried to avoid him,” Ginobili said. “I jumped to my left, and I let it go right before I touched the floor, but it wasn’t really a good shot. But I had no options because with his length, it is really hard to shoot over him.”

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich again had Ginobili and Parker on the floor down the stretch, a combination of go-to players able to make choices difficult for the Thunder.

“He and Tony do a great job of that,” Popovich said. “You can get tired working as hard as they do, and taking turns with it seems to work pretty well. There are times when they realize who should have the ball. I don’t really tell them. They figure it out.

“They’ve been here a long time, and their decisions are usually better than what I’m going to tell them to do. So Tony carried it for a while, and Manu carried it for a while. But I think everybody spread the floor well, and they executed.”

Ginobili made 3 of 6 shots, including a 3-pointer, and 3 of 4 free throws in the final period. He understood how important it was not to allow the Thunder to take the confidence they seemed to be gathering from their comeback all the way back to Oklahoma City with a victory.

“They played a great fourth quarter,” he said. “They started to attack, attack, attack; put your head down and just try to draw fouls, and it worked for them in that fourth quarter. They were everywhere.

“I don’t know if we got a little tired or stopped playing a little bit, but they were successful with what they wanted in the fourth. We just happened to make a couple tough shots that gave us a little fresh air.”